Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope (1894)

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

. . . and this was considered "family entertainment" by light bulb guy Thomas Edison during a period when the extremities of chairs and tables needed to be referred to as "limbs" in polite society (since a woman blurting out "I just bumped my knee on a table LEG" would be judged harshly for employing such a scandalously racy figure of speech). Seen today, SANDOW No. 1 could only be viewed as a truncated half minute TV commercial for some brand of adult underpants, such as Depends. An otherwise naked guy twists this way and that, with the pitchman (if this could have been a talkie) intoning, "Look, no matter which way Teddy totters, he doesn't leak!" This "Sandow" guy's parents must have left him with a pretty big chip on his shoulder when they christened him "Friedrich Wilhelm Mueller." (That's even worse than George Alexander Louis Hanover--oops, I mean Windsor!) Whenever his parents took this boy named everything but Sue to the museum, young Wilhelm yearned to be one of the nude statues, immune to the laughter of passing schoolgirls. (See his biography here on IMDb.) The crying shame of it is that in the 21st century he could have buffed up, crossed illegally into China, shouted "Long live the Dalai Lama!" and before you could say "Jack Robinson" he'd have been shot in the back of the head and plasticized for museum exhibition--which was his ultimate dream all along!

Sandow (1894) Carmencita (1894) Boxing Cats (1894) Caicedo With Pole (1894) Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894)Cockfight, no. 2 (1894) These six shorts from Edison, still early in the movie game, are rather interesting because of the self promoting factor in them. It's clear a few famous folks thought appearing in movies might bring more people to their actual show and on that level these shorts remain very interesting today. That's especially true when you consider the lack of footage of such acts. Sandow is Eugene Sandow, the man who claimed to be the strongest in the world. Shot on March 6, 1894, we see Sandow flexing in various ways in front of the camera. I'm not sure what he was thinking at the time of shooting but seeing this today is quite a laugh. Carmencita is the famous dancer doing her belly dance on screen making her the first woman to appear in an American movie. The film has become somewhat famous over the past several years because of various documentaries doing studies about early sexuality and how it caused so much controversy. This film, as innocent as they come, did strike a bit of outrage when originally released so it's fun to look at with that in mind. It's also worth noting that this was the first movie listed on the IMDb. Boxing Cats would have PETA members throwing a fit today but in 1894 seeing two animals fight, in a funny manor, was quite entertaining. Prof. Welton can be seen in the center of the frame directing his two cats, with boxing gloves on, to fight. This is actually pretty funny and it's worth noting that the cats throw more punches than a lot of the real fights that were filmed around this time with humans. Caicedo With Pole has hire-wire specialist Juan Caicedo jumping, bouncing and flipping on his wire, which must have been an amazing site when originally released. Annabelle Butterfly Dance features the famous Annabelle Moore dancing around a stage in a white outfit with wings attached. This here probably remains one of the most viewed shorts from this era with its images being shown throughout the world when it comes to exploring early cinema. Cockfight, no. 2 would be controversial today as it features two birds going after one another while two men in the background make bets. This was actually a remake so to speak as the original film was released earlier in the year and was apparently so popular that the prints wore out, which caused the studio to make this version. Apparently the original version didn't feature the men in the background.

This is a 20-second long Edison Company short, filmed March 6, 1894 at Edison's Black Maria studio, of the man widely considered to be the first modern body builder, Eugen (or "Eugene") Sandow, who flexes for the camera.Sandow, born Friedrich Wilhelm Mueller in 1867 in Prussia, had worked as a sideshow strongman, often for famed showman Florenz Ziegfeld. In later years he was the personal fitness instructor for King George V. He authored a number of books on health and fitness and is credited with doing much to start the "health movement" that continues to this day.Sandow was notable for believing that strongmen shouldn't just present displays of strength, but show off their bodies as works of art. Conceiving of his body as sculptural artwork, Sandow looked to classical Greek and Roman statuary for an ideal human form to emulate.Ziegfeld put together a traveling show called "Sandow's Trocadero Vaudevilles"--"Trocadero" after the Chicago nightclub Ziegfeld's father opened in 1893, hoping to capitalize on the city's upcoming World's Fair. In the roadshow, as in appearances at the Trocadero, Sandow presented "Muscle Display Performances", as he does in this short. He also performed the usual feats of strength, although he would occasionally execute odd stunts such as holding a pony above his head.An amusing incident on the roadshow occurred in San Francisco, where it was publicized that Sandow would wrestle a "man-eating lion". Thousands showed up, but it was obvious that the animal had been drugged--it could barely function. Despite such fiascos, Ziegfeld and Sandow traveled for nearly two years.So Sandow, the short--the copyright title is actually "Souvenir strip of the Edison Kinetoscope (Sandow, the modern Hercules)"--has much historical significance. As a work of art, it isn't quite as successful as some other Edison shorts, such as Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1894). The picture is broached by light seeping in from either side, probably due to some technical problem with the early cameras. Less forgivable, the framing of Sandow is too close, resulting in poses being cut off; you can often not see Sandow's hands, and it somewhat ruins the statue-like effect that was the point of Sandow's performance.But Sandow is impressive enough physically, and in light of the historical interest, both because of its place in the history of film and Sandow and Ziegfeld's lives, it's certainly worth the few seconds it takes to watch.

Strongman Eugene Sandow made his motion picture debut in this film. The Edison organization - probably in the person of W.K.L. Dickson himself since he uses a quote from a book he wrote with his sister - was so proud of this fact that they printed up a Souvenir strip showing 12 stills from the movie and with the following description:"Observe that each picture has a slight change of position as it passes the point of vision. The rapid photographing of these different stages of movement at the rate of 46 to 50 a second or 2760 upon a long strip of light sensitive film creates the illusionary spectacle of moveable figures." From "The Life and Inventions of Edison - by Antonia and W.K.L. Dickson.